Remember the Senate

One thing we talked about quite a bit before the election amongst the LP collective is drawing attention to the Senate contests. I don’t think we’ve done as good a job as we could have, considering its importance.

Just to remind us why getting the Coalition out of its Senate majority, and giving the balance of power back to progressive parties, is so important, here’s some that politician-bloggers from the minor parties contending for the Senate have raised recently:

Yet again, a case which received a blaze of publicity over two years ago, adding to unrealistic fear and alarm about Muslims in Australia, has failed when it finally comes to trail – and providing Australia’s Muslims yet another reason to feel less secure and less trusting of our government and law enforcement agencies.

Even more worryingly, the judge in the case condemned the conduct of ASIO officers as “grossly improper”.

When was the last time you heard Labor stand up on human rights?

Or Christine Milne talking about energy efficient buildings. While I remain unconvinced about the prescriptiveness of their policies, at least they’re talking about the kinds of greenhouse reductions we actually need to make.

It is all but impossible (and highly undesirable, given the experiences of the previous parliamentary term) for Labor to win an outright majority in the Senate. I live in a safe seat, and I imagine many of you do too. But what we can all do is our bit to push the Senate in a more desirable direction. Let’s make sure the Liberals lose their majority, and make sure Steve Fielding is reduced to the irrelevance he thoroughly deserves to be.

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14 comments on “Remember the Senate”

I agree it’s absolutely essential the Coalition’s control over the Senate is broken. But I’m sorry Andrew Bartlett, after the Great Dummy Spit I will never ever vote Democrat again. And unlike some, I make every effort to keep my promises.

Mindy and joe2, indeed the ACT is looking extremely interesting. There are only 2 seats, which have always split 1 ALP 1 Lib, but the Libs have come close an several occasions to losing – to Greens, Labor and the Dems (when Rick Farley ran a few years ago).

Because there are only 2 seats in each territory, the quota is 33.3% for each Senator. That means that, if a minor party candidate gets a strong flow of preferences, AND if the Libs go under quota, the minor can get up.

This time, the incumbent Lib, Gary Humphries, is a rather unpopular man, and the Greens candidate, Kerrie Tucker, is a very popular former MLA who appeals across the board. Kerrie has attracted preference flows above Humphries from every single party except the LDP, who are running Lisa Milat (Ivan’s sister in law) on a pro-guns ticket. She might deliver a few hundred votes to Gary if he’s lucky.

Humphries needs to get at the very least 32% if he’s to win. Otherwise Kerrie will get over the line. Polling is suggesting he’s sitting at around 24%, while Kerrie’s on 20%. If that polling is anything like real, he’s a goner. One to watch on Saturday night.

Thanks for the post, Robert. Great to have a bit of focus on this ‘other race’.

I would rather a balance of power in the Senate but I would rather it not be the Greens, well at least not 100% the balance of power.

What I really want to talk about is NSW Nationals Senate Candidate John “Wacka” Williams, after last election and maybe even around NSW election time we were told he was in the Barnaby Joyce mould. Well Barnaby talks a lot and rarely acts. However, I suppose that is a start. With the election only days away we have not heard a thing about John “Wacka” Williams and if memory serves we heard a lot about Joyce prior to the last election. Of course I could be mistaken on that final point.

Now given Williams is a candidate that is likely to get up why haven’t we heard anything about him?

joe2, dead right, everyone here in canberra is voting ALP lower house and greens upper house, except perhaps those dills who fall for the dodgy HTV just being distributed by humphries, that says the greens will turn us all onto drugs, although in this dope-smoking town that will probably backfire on him…

“Is there much in local media about the special importance of the two Senate seats in ACT? Lot’s of public servants etc who would be pretty clued up, I guess.”

Joe2, as a general observation, yes, the Canberra Times is giving the issue reasonable run, ACT voters are supposed to be the best educated in the country, somewhere around 40% are clued-up public servants as you say, and the territory usually votes mostly left/progressive (eg the republic referendum).

So my reckoning is that the Greens Kerry Tucker will get up. She used to be the in ACT Legislative Assembly, she is personable and intelligent and generally well liked in the community.

Here’s hoping anyway, because Tucker will go into the Senate straight away (not having to wait until next July like the other elected Senators) and the balance of power will change immediately.